(Part 2) Best nonprofit organizations books according to redditors

Nonprofit Bookkeeping and Accounting For Dummies


I've not read this book in particular, but I've found this series shockingly good at giving you basic education on any given subject.

Ask is used as a noun already. Like in the NFP world for example. It works. It's the ask--the time when you ask someone for something (usually money). There is even a book about it entitled The Ask.

The career prospects in those fields are absolutely and utterly terrible, even if you are willing and able to move to random places across the country multiple times--first moving to the best school you can get into (because otherwise you have absolutely no hope of becoming a professor), then moving to (if you're lucky) accept a couple of visiting professor positions at different places, then moving to (again if you're lucky) accept a tenure-track position, then hopefully getting tenure (but if you don't you'll either have to move again or have to leave the field). The prospects in those fields are even worse than for PhD's in subjects that lots of undergrads take classes in, like English or foreign languages. And that is really saying something.

And I think you might be surprised how many people with humanities PhD's are "open to" working in private high schools. The competition is fierce, even for people whose PhD's are in subjects that high schools traditionally teach, unlike the subjects you're interested in, and even for people with experience teaching high school students, which you would not have. The competition is also fierce when it comes to working for a publisher--not to mention, most publishers are located in high cost-of-living areas (NYC, etc.).

It is almost impossible to exaggerate how terrible the prospects are. I would encourage you to think more broadly about what your calling is, because if you don't, you are putting yourself in a position where the state of the economy dictates whether you have a purpose in life.

Here's what I mean by that. If you felt your purpose in life was to be a pirate or a medieval troubadour, what would it mean that those jobs don't exist anymore? Would it mean you literally have no purpose in life? Or would it mean that you need to redefine your purpose in broader terms, finding a way for it to exist in modern times?

You're already thinking broadly enough that your purpose could apparently be any of the following: philosophy professor, theology professor, high school teacher of those subjects, something at a publisher (what--editor? How would you qualify for that position?), something at a nonprofit (again, what?).

So obviously, if you would feel satisfied by any of those jobs, then you don't actually NEED to get a PhD in anything, much less in philosophy or theology. College professor is literally THE ONLY job that requires a PhD (and even then it doesn't require it for all disciplines--an MFA suffices for teaching creative writing, an MD for teaching medicine, and a JD for teaching law).

And judging from the experience of several friends of mine, a PhD can be an actual hindrance in getting jobs outside academia. Nonprofits and publishers, for instance, do not need someone who knows everything about a particular 16th-century theologian or about Foucault. Nonprofits need people who can write grant proposals and marketing materials, manage teams of volunteers, etc. Publishers need people who can edit prose, spot marketable projects and work with the author to bring them to fruition, etc.

Not to mention, even if you get into a fully funded PhD program (and it would be life-alteringly insane to accept a spot in a humanities PhD program that you have to pay for), all "fully funded" means is that you spend 5-6 years earning maybe $15,000/year while teaching undergrads and trying to write your dissertation. Not only is it very hard to live on that amount, have you thought about the opportunity cost? If you could get a $40k/year job now, or post-MA degree, then doing a PhD means you're giving up 5-6 years of that salary--so it's costing you potentially $240k just to get a PhD that is probably not going to help you get a job. A quarter of a million dollars in lost opportunities and 5-6 years in lost experience (i.e. you could spend those years getting relevant experience that leads to a very fulfilling job, OR you could get a PhD in philosophy or theology).

For the sake of your own sanity, not to mention your family and your marriage, please get creative about what your purpose is. Think broadly. Don't lock yourself into a dead or dying field that will cost you huge amounts of money to lock yourself into.

If you want to work for, say, a theology or philosophy-related nonprofit, research all such nonprofits and learn how to write grants. I assume that as a humanities MA student, you must have decent writing skills? Learn everything you can about those sorts of nonprofits, learn everything you can about writing grants (I highly recommend the book linked below), and you could go straight to a nicely paid, fulfilling grantwriting job without blowing 5-6 years on something between hassle and hell.

Writing for a Good Cause: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Good-Cause-Persuasive-Nonprofits/dp/0684857405

governments use fund accounting, you moron.

This was my government accounting textbook:

http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Accounting-Governmental--Profit-Organizations/dp/007352705X

What was yours?